Qian Longxi and others are not stupid. It can be seen that what happened in Shanxi was tacitly approved by Chongzhen. Now the public opinion is one-sided, and everyone in the streets and alleys of the capital is talking about this matter after dinner.
Adding a business tax is said to be a good thing. If businessmen are rich, they should levy more. Compared with others, the thirty-one tax for businessmen is really very small. But only adding Shanxi merchants and not Jiangnan, no matter how you look at it,
Somewhat nondescript. And this kind of policy actually came from the majestic Central Committee of the Ming Dynasty. What did the imperial court want to do? Even if it favors Jiangnan, isn't it too obvious?
At this juncture, it suddenly started raining in the capital. It was not real rain, but a pile of flying paper. The contents on the paper were very interesting, especially one thing, which made everyone talk non-stop.
Last year, when Shaanxi was hit hard by the disaster, merchants from Shanxi organized millions of taels of silver to provide relief to Shaanxi. In comparison, the donations from the good officials in the court who cared about the people were pitifully small. One hundred taels more and more than a dozen taels less.
Emperor Chongzhen finished the statistics and finally came up with a donation of 2,300 taels. Two thousand, three hundred taels, this is what those officials wanted for Shaanxi.
Zhang Fengxiang, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, donated fifty taels of silver. However, when his grandson was one month old, he treated the guests to wine and held a banquet, which cost more than five thousand taels of silver.
There are countless examples listed on the paper. The people in the capital don't know much about the outside world, but Zhang Fengxiang's affairs are still very clear. Zhang Fengxiang, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, was happy with his grandson two months ago and invited guests from the west of the city.
Several restaurants have invited several chefs, and everyone in the capital knows this. For that occasion, the running water banquet would definitely cost more than 5,000 taels.
At this time, the people in the capital were a little dissatisfied. Is this the upright gentleman he keeps talking about? Is this the so-called honest and good official?
There is such a big mess in Shaanxi, and I am reluctant to donate money. I spent thousands of taels on my grandson's full-moon wine without batting an eyelid. The question is, how much is the monthly salary of the minister of the Ministry of Industry? Moreover, I haven't heard that Zhang Fengxiang has any big family in his hometown.
Karma, a full moon wine costs thousands of taels of silver, where does this money come from?
Because of the appearance of these papers, a magnitude 3 earthquake hit the court immediately. The contents on the papers were half true and half false, but this is the most terrifying thing, especially what happened to Zhang Fengxiang and others not long ago.
The people in the capital have not yet forgotten so much that they cannot remember things even a few months ago. In the streets, some people have already expressed their dissatisfaction with this. If it is just that, that's it. However, some ignorant students from the Imperial College also came out to interfere.
Dozens of Imperial College students spontaneously organized a sit-in outside the Ming Dynasty Gate, demanding that the imperial court investigate all officials, punish corruption, and restore a bright future to the Ming Dynasty.
Punishing corruption? Find a few small fish and shrimps, kill chickens and scare monkeys, it's okay to show off, but if we really want to thoroughly investigate, how many civil and military officials will be left in the dynasty? These are still secondary, the students of the Imperial College, that is the future
Why are you, the pillar of the Donglin Party, attacking your own family? Young people are not sensible, and neither are those in charge of the Imperial College?
The incident got bigger and bigger, and the cabinet could no longer suppress it. Everyone knew who was causing the trouble, and it must have been caused by Shanxi merchants. These Shanxi merchants were ruthless enough, and the cabinet gave Shanxi merchants
Feeding poison, Shanxi merchants turned around and gave the court a piece of shit.
Li Biao, Qian Qianyi and others had to order various ministries in the capital to post official documents explaining the paper, saying that the contents on the paper were fabricated by some people. In order to increase their persuasion, they also deliberately arrested a few local gangsters.
Said these people are the ones who forged the contents of the paper.
However, the effect is very little, because such papers continue to appear in the streets and alleys of the capital.
Li Biao also understood that if he didn't withdraw the policy of increasing taxes on Shanxi merchants, the matter would be over. But the policy was unanimously agreed by the cabinet and the six ministries. If he withdraws it now, wouldn't it be a slap in the face?
Li Biao and others are really in a bit of a dilemma. They have never done this kind of thing like slapping themselves in the face.
Li Biao and others approached Chongzhen, and he was appointed as expected, hoping that His Majesty the Emperor could act as a peacemaker and persuade the people in the Xuan Mansion to stop immediately. However, Chongzhen's attitude was very firm and he was too lazy to take care of this mess.
Come to think of it, before Chongzhen didn't agree, the Six Ministries of the Cabinet still had to draft a resolution, but now it's hard to stop, thinking of His Majesty the Emperor. Well, Chongzhen didn't care, so Li Biao could only write a letter and send it to Zhang Bei and Sun Chengzong.
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The only thing Li Biao can count on now is Sun Chengzong. He hopes that Mr. Sun will take the overall situation into consideration and advise those Shanxi merchants to accept it as soon as they see fit. Of course, the court will also suppress the increase in commercial taxes in a timely manner. However, the increase in merchant tax will be suppressed.
However, the decision of taxation cannot be exempted. After all, the court also needs face.
The letter was quickly delivered to Sun Chengzong. Regarding the content of the letter, Sun Chengzong also smiled bitterly and shook his head. These people cherish their feathers too much. At this time, they actually want to save their face. Huh, what happened when they did these bad things before?
Never thought about the court’s face?
In the court, Sun Chengzong can be said to be an alternative. He was praised as the leader of the Donglin Party, mostly because of his high prestige. But in fact, Sun Chengzong was a very pragmatic person. He used to be in charge of Liaodong and often communicated with Wei Zhongxian.
.In Sun Chengzong's view, as long as it is beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, you can try it. On the contrary, it is very undesirable for the party to be united and oppose others, and to treat people wrongly.
Sometimes, Sun Chengzong thought that if he had not held the title of Imperial Master for two generations, he would have been dug out by those people and beaten to the eunuch faction.
In principle, Sun Chengzong agreed to this taxation. The merchants, especially Shanxi merchants and Jiangnan merchants, were very generous. However, the commercial tax customized by the imperial court was only 30 taxes and 1 tax, so it was temporarily changed to 10 taxes and 1 tax.
There is no problem. But only Shanxi merchants are accepted, and Jiangnan is not accepted. This partiality is too obvious. The court has done so much that Shanxi merchants will not be able to swallow their bad breath no matter how much they can endure it.
Fortunately, the Shanxi merchants were suppressed by Tie Mo. Without Tie Mo, it was hard for Sun Chengzong to imagine how far the Shanxi merchants would break with the imperial court.
Sun Chengzong was disgusted with the actions of some people in the court, but he didn't want Shanxi to be too chaotic. After all, Shaanxi was still waiting for money and food reinforcements. However, Sun Chengzong was a little embarrassed to speak.
Although he is Tie Mo's teacher, Tie Mo will most likely listen to his orders. But Sun Chengzong has to think more about some things. He has been in Yun Mansion for a while. Sun Chengzong has a much deeper understanding of the affairs of Yun Mansion, especially the affairs of Shanxi merchants.
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Tie Mo can now be regarded as the leader of Shanxi merchants, and all Shanxi merchants obey him. This kind of trust is punishable by profit. At this time, if Tie Mo is asked to withdraw his order and prevent Shanxi merchants from making trouble, what will happen to the previous losses?
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Because the situation in Shanxi was very serious, the Taiyuan Prefecture relied on soldiers and horses to seize several Shanxi merchants very forcefully.
In short, if we don't give a satisfactory answer to this matter, even if Tie Mo comes forward, the Shanxi merchants will probably be dissatisfied.